Comics Journalism

January 5, 2015

The Amsterdam Press Museum is hosting an extensive exhibition on comics journalism, featuring Dutch and international examples. The exhibition is one of the first in the Netherlands to focus exclusively on comics journalism as a distinctive from of journalism, an indication that this branch of reporting is gaining ground in the Netherlands and in Europe.

Cartoon Movement is also represented. On display is Dan Archer's interactive comic on the 2007 Nisoor Square shootings. Published back in 2011, this comic still is a great (if experimental) example of what is possible through graphic storytelling.

The exhibition will be on display until March 1st. The Press Museum is located here and is open daily (except for Mondays).

November 27, 2014

The International Criminal Court will elect six new judges in December, in a process that is certainly not as straightforward as simply casting a vote. Justice Hub asked us to create an infographic that would explain the importance of these elections and would show the complexities involved.

We came up with an infocomic, a crossover between a comic and an infographic, made by Nicaraguan comic artist Pedro X. Molina, which tells the story of the elections in a lighthearted but informative way.

Part 1 of the infocomic is published today. Part 2 will be online next week.

November 12, 2014

On Monday November 17, we publish the final chapter of A Century of Silent Helpers, our 50-page comic on the history of development aid. The last chapter looks to the future; we ask experts in the field what they think development aid will (and should) look like in the decades to come?

November 4, 2014

Comics journalism is doing well. More and more media organizations realize the potential of this form of storytelling. Last week, Al Jazeera America published its first comic, a 46-page graphic novella titled: Terms of Service: Understanding Our Role in the World of Big Data. The comic is a joint venture of Al Jazeera America reporter Michael Keller and comic artist Josh Neufeld and is freely available online. According to Al Jazeera, the comic sets out to 'a thought provoking, entertaining field guide to help smart people understand how their personal, and often very private, data is collected and used.'

We can only applaud Al Jazeera's decision to produce a comic. It's great to see a major news outlet recognize the power of comics journalism and use it to tackle a serious issue like big data. Neufeld's artwork is excellent and the story has a nice flow. It touches upon a number of serious and complicated issues connected to big data and how big data could shape the future society we live in. Part of the aim of the comic is to provide people with a foundation to ask their own questions.

That goal is certainly fulfilled, but the downside is that the comic touches on so many important issues that you sometimes feel you are left with more questions than answers. Some of the subjects the comic deals with are definitely worthy of a more in-depth analysis, such as the way insurance companies use data to fundamentally transform the way they work, or the way data is used (also by journalists) to create narratives that might be faced on facts, but are not always true. We hope this piece will be a proof of concept for Al Jazeera, so that they might produce more comics that will deal with these issues in more detail.

Another interesting aspect of the comic is how the story is told, through the characters 'Josh' and 'Michael'. Josh and Michael travel the country to talk to experts about big data; as they travel, their interaction provides the backbone of the story. This works very well, at times it feels like your watching a good documentary instead of reading a comic. Sometimes, however, the interactions feels slightly too whimsical, as if Al Jazeera thought that comics absolutely need to be funny. As a result, the comedy feels a bit forced here and there. But it might just be a matter of personal taste; maybe comics journalism needs to incorporate more humor to reach a mass audience. Time will tell.

These slight drawbacks notwithstanding, we can highly recommend the read. The comic does what it sets out to do: it educates, it stimulates you to ask questions and it's entertaining.

We can only hope this is the first of many comics to be produced by major media organizations.

October 16, 2014

Today we've published chapter 4 of A Century of Silent Helpers, our comic about the history of development aid. The entire comic is now also out in print. The book is available in Dutch and English, and we'll post more information on how to get a copy of the book soon.

September 24, 2014

As the days are getting shorter and colder (in our part of the world), we have some new comics lined up between now and Christmas. Time for a short overview:

Still to come are chapter 4 and 5 of our comic A Century of Silent Helpers. Chapter 4 looks at the rise of state funded development aid in the Netherlands between 1970 and 2010. In this period, the government became the biggest funder of Dutch development aid.

The first page of chapter 4: 'The Heyday of Helping'

The financial and economic crisis, government budget constraints and changing public opinion put an end to all that. NGOs are forced to look elsewhere to ensure their financial future. Chapter 5 is about the future of helping. We ask a number of experts how they see the future of development aid.

The first page of chapter 5: 'The Future of Helping'

Another project we're working on is a series of comics on post-election violence in Kenya and Ivory Coast for the new platform Justice Hub. The series will tell personal stories of people affected by the violence. We currently have two comic of about five pages each in production.

The first is an account of Amadou Tall from Ivory Coast, who was beaten severely by government soldiers in 2010 because they suspected him of being a youth leader responsible for organizing protests against the election results. This comic is drawn by an artist from Ivory Coast, Roland Polman.

Fragment from the storyboard created by Roland Polman.

The second comic we're maing is by Victor Ndula (who already has published two comics with us). It is the sad story of a young girl that got raped in the turmoil that followed elections in Kenya in 2007. The rape resulted in a pregnancy. When she looks at her now six-year-old daughter she can feel only hatred.

Fragment from the draft comic created by Victor Ndula.

All these comics will be interactive, including (custom-made) videos, links and other resources that will provide detailed context and background to these stories.

For 2015, we're planning the production of a longer comic for the London School of Economics, on witch hunting in Africa. This is still a huge problem. To give an example, a United Nations study of prisons found in recent years that more than half of the people being held in prisons in the Central African Republic had been accused of witchcraft. We will keep you posted on the progress.

September 1, 2014

In August, Kenyan cartoonist Victor Ndula traveled to Kakuma Refugee Camp in a team under the auspices of the UNHCR. Among them, Ger Duany, a former refugee who became a successful actor in America. He returns to the camp to visit family.

This week we publish his 14-page interactive graphic journalism report telling Ger's story, and also the stories of other refugees living in the camp.

August 19, 2014

This Wednesday we publish the third chapter of 'A Century of Silent Helpers', our comic about the history of Dutch development organization Cordaid within the context of the rise of development aid in the 20th century.

Cordaid is a catholic organization; missionary work is an important part of its history and the foundation of modern catholic development aid. In the 1960s, the Netherlands had over 9,000 active missionaries all over the world, more than any other country. In chapter 3, we tell the story of one of them.

August 11, 2014

We're back from our summer break, and we have a new comics journalism production lined up for next Wednesday (August 13). In earlier comics we explored the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the tent camps of Haiti, but it turns out that Berlin also has its very own favela, in the middle of Kreuzberg.

'Berlins Favela' is an interactive comic report that was made by Julia Severiens as a graduation project the Köln International School of Design in Cologne, Germany. It is based on a report by Nik Afanasjew. The original German version of the comic was published by Berlin Newspaper 'Der Tagesspiegel'.

June 26, 2014

Next week, we publish chapter 2 of A Century of Silent Helpers, a 50-page comic by Tom Humberstone and Tjeerd Royaards chronicling the history of Cordaid (a catholic Dutch development aid organization), within the broader context of the history of international development aid in the 20th century. The second chapter tells the story of Jos van Mackelenberg, president of a predecessor of Cordaid during World War II, who risked his life to save two Jewish children.